When we met back in October... Discussion took place: – issues that arise from doing group work – encouraging students to talk – spreading this practice beyond our own classrooms Various questions came from the discussion

Issues that arise from doing Group Work and Encouraging Pupils to Talk

The problems we found... Not something classes will always do “naturally” Classes need to be ‘trained’ Pupils find it difficult to explain things to each other Pupils want to work independently on their own rather than discuss Hate not being told how to do things Scared of getting it wrong

Here are a few ideas that the team have ‘tried and tested’...

Speed Dating Sit round the room as best you can Give the answer too Don’t forget to swap cards! Encourage and praise Vote for best teacher See Speed Dating Cards

Kagan Structures – Pair Work Work in pairs – Only one pen – Take it in turns to answer (See example of algebraic Fractions Quiz)

Jigsaw Lessons Good after a test! Set up experts who have already got the questions right Experts teach subgroups and these then teach their original groups Teachers then free to wander between groups and listen How do you choose the subgroups?

Collective Memory A picture is displayed on a ‘hidden’ screen Pupils take it in turn to look at the picture Relay information back to their team (See example of Percentages Thinking Skills)

Teams of 4 - choose who is 1, 2 3 and 4 1. Number 1 Team Members will come out and look at a Picture for 30 seconds 2. Return to Team and spend the next 2 minutes giving as much information as possible and developing a STRATEGY on how the rest of the team will get the information from the picture 3. Number 2, 3 & 4 Team Members will then come out IN TURN when I call them for 30 seconds and get some more information, then return for 2 minutes and relay their information. We will do this twice.

£200£200 50% 25% 10% 5% 20% 30% 40% 1% 2% 3% 4% £10 20% 1% 5% 40%25% 50% 4% 1% = ÷ % = ÷ 10 50% = ÷ 2

Calculate the value of the coconuts at the end of each percentage palm Calculate the values of the sets of coconuts on the floor

Graduated Information Give the problem with minimal information Keep adding extra bits of info Pupils sit down when they feel they have had enough help to continue with task Differentiation

Writing Frame Structure What questions could you ask? What maths could you use? What resources? Could use a picture from an exam question Then show and do the question afterwards See Thinking boxes and Reading images – CATS

Writing Frame Structure

To help structure a group work task Could be used to support activities such as Security Camera TASC Wheel

GCSE Revision Quiz Question cards set up at front of room Different area of maths (N, A, S, D) Different grades (B, C, D, E) Each question carries a different amount of marks (5 for B, 4 for C, etc) Activity has time limit Wining team has most points

Show your Working Activity Give pupils cut out cards that show the stages to work out an answer Ask pupils to order the cards and stick onto A3 sheet They must annotate the stages with a written description of how to get from one step to another (See example of Solving Algebraic Equations)

Subtract 5a from both sides Subtract 5 from both sides Divide both sides by 6

Talking Starters What happened next……? Using a screen shot to promote class discussion Could be taken from BBC news pictures For example: This could be used as an introduction to parallel and perpendicular lines

Talking Starters Starter thoughts Pose a question to generate discussion on a topic, for revision, consolidation, to identify prior knowledge For example Who would win in a fight…. What would you rather be….

Talking Starters Starting points A selection of starters designed to get students “Talking Maths” For example:

Talking Starters Cartoon Concepts Available from: Starting points for discussions around misconceptions

Impress me…… Show me everything you know about…. Give a resource, picture, task, diagram (for example: removed from question from an exam paper) Students encouraged to think of ideas that no one else has

Other Techniques Questioning……..encourage discussion within class Never answer a question Basketball not ping-pong Instilling confidence to get it wrong – if they are happy to get it wrong they will talk more Always, sometimes, never– consolidates learning from previous years, or true/false see transformations true/false Looking at misconceptions – discussion around where you could go wrong rather than what is right Put the ‘trendy’ one in charge

Other Techniques Allocate roles – make the gossips leader or in charge of feedback, scribes Pass the Parcel – generate a question Competition Memory wall with post it notes Video yourself doing a construction etc Random name generator Label tables instead of random name No hands up policy Get different students to use a different colour pen

Spreading this Practise beyond our own Classrooms

How do we get the rest of the department to do this too? Team observations Modelling Whole school targets help - everyone has it as a target this year Functional weeks – so everyone has to do it! Put classes on a carousel, same activity with different groups………can try something with a different class Talk and try out in the department meetings Make it easy for everyone to be able to do then follow up meeting. Collaborative planning – can you work from other people’s lesson plans?

The Next Step... Put together all our ideas to be adapted by you for the appropriate topic and class ability Examples to help